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An upstart firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts said Tuesday that a high-ranking official from both the Clinton and Obama administrations would be joining their board of directors, helping them further a project that may hold the key to saving industrialized society from a long-predicted energy crunch.
You know, I posted on a similar technology 2 years ago - A bacteria that eats garbage and craps out oil, but this one is even better. Just put the bacteria in a tank and leave it alone. No feeding required, as this genetically engineered bacteria takes its nourishment directly out of the air, to manufacture the oil that it craps out. To those who say that this is not feasible or that it is something out of science fiction, let me reply that former Clinton staffer, John Podesta, just joined the company. Podesta is not a dumb guy, and he believes it can be done. I also believe that it can be done. Imagine an area the size of Chicago giving us all the oil that we would ever need. Imagine not having to pay money to nations that harbor terrorists. But best of all, imagine oil at 30 dollars a barrel, and also imagine the end of OPEC.
Many politicians have stressed the need for some kind of an economic Manhattan Project, in order to put the US back on a solid financial footing. Of course, such a project would drive up the deficit to levels never before imagined. But what we have here is a project that will eventually pay for itself. I'm sold. Let's do this.
So, what will the media have to say in 10 years?
December 4, 2021, (AP) - Today, the price for shares of Chevron-Texaco skyrocketed, after the company completed it's buyout of Joule Unlimited. Asked what the plans were for their recent aquisition, reporters were met with "no comment".
In other news, Chevron-Texaco announced that exploratory drilling was finally underway in Washington DC, where engineers had announced weeks ago that a major oil deposit may exist. The last hurdle for the Washington oil derricks was cleared when Congress, after a lenghty debate of more than 3 minutes, approved the measure, which was then rapidly sent to the President, who immediately signed it. Oil derricks will decorate the White House and Senate lawns within the next two weeks, just in time for the Christmas tree lighting ceremony, in which the derricks will be used in lieu of trees. Merry Christmas, and prosperity to all.
:mrgreen:
All kidding aside, though, what technologies are in place today?
1) Traditional oil - Sweet crude is almost gone, and it is very expensive to get to the crude that is left. Yes, they are still finding deposits - Underneath the north pole, at the bottom of the oceans, and in other places where the energy returned is only marginally better than energy invested.
2) Alberta oil sands - Yes, there is oil there too. After digging up the sands, transporting the sands to a processing plant, processing the oil out of the sands, returning the sands to it's original place, and then transporting the oil to the consumer, the energy gained is BARELY more than the energy invested.
3) And here is the whopper - Biofuels. First, the fuel must be grown. Then it must be harvested, and then transported to a processing plant, where the oils from the product are captured. From there, the captured goes to a distillery, where the final product, ethanol is made. Ethanol is then transported to conventional refineries, where it becomes an additive to gasoline. The energy yielded from this process is lower than the energy it took to make it. What kind of an idiot could even conceieve of such a harebrained scheme? A politician, of course. And what makes this technology even worse can be summed up in a single question - How many people could the corn used in making biofuel feed?
4) Finally, we come to bacteria crap - Nope, not in place yet, but I am hoping it will be, and very soon. There are costs, but the energy yielded compared to the energy invested, while not quite on a par with sweet crude, is close, and is much more than all other technologies. All this technology needs is a kick start, just like the kind of kick start that created the atom bomb, and sent men to the moon. Want gas at less than a buck a gallon again? This is the opportunity for it. While I am normally against government spending, I am in favor of this, because the eventual outcome will be such that the investment will be paid back many times over. An area the size of Chicago can end our energy dependence for all time.
This one is a no-brainer, folks. Let's do it, so that there may eventually come a day when we can turn the tables on OPEC, and hold food over their heads, as they held oil over ours for so many years.
Article is here.
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